There's certain parts of God we understand. For instance, the father part we get. The father is a leader, is a provider. God is a father.
God is a provider, makes sense. The son, we don't have too much problem with that. Some of us are sons.
We grew up trying to please dad, our fathers on earth. But the idea of the Holy Spirit, so what does he do? What is he up to?
What's all that about? There are many misconceptions when it comes to the Holy Spirit. He's not simply a wave of energy or mystical force. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip helps you grasp who the Holy Spirit really is and the vital role he plays in your life. But first, we want to invite you to see the very places Jesus walked, performed miracles, and even promised to send his Holy Spirit to you.
This is Pastor Skip. My next tour to Israel is right around the corner. Israel has just lifted the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for international travel. That's important to some of you because some of you have been back and forth, indecisive about going to Israel, not going to Israel. So this is a perfect time to say yes to that. Also, seats on flights to Israel are getting scarce.
So if you've been thinking about it, let me just say this. I've been traveling now to Israel for 40 plus years. I've been to Israel 41 times. I'm just as excited this time because I'm going to show you what you've never seen. Your Bible will come alive and you'll never read it the same again. I hope you'll join me this May. Hey, check out this itinerary. We're going to be in Galilee. We're going to be in Jerusalem. You're going to see spots in the Old and the New Testament that you've only read about, but you'll never forget.
Here's more information. Tour agenda and registration details at connectwithskip.com slash Israel or call Inspiration Cruises and Tours 1-800-247-1899. Tour dates are May 4th through the 15th, 12 days over 40 iconic sites. Also a pre-tour excursion to Rome. There's still time to join Skip and Lenya Heitzig for an epic tour of Israel. Registration is open now.
Connectwithskip.com slash Israel. Okay, we're in John chapter 16 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's study. Some of us who grew up with the Apostles' Creed reciting it in churches, any of you here did that? So those of us who did, we remember as kids, if you remember the old form of that, how awkward it was when they came to a certain part.
The Creed, as you know, goes, I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost. Now when a kid hears that, he was. And then it goes on to say crucified died and was buried. And then it says, I believe in the Holy Ghost. Now when I was a kid, the only ghost I was familiar with was a guy by the name of Casper, and he was a friendly ghost.
And other than that, my parents basically said stay away from ghosts. So as a kid hearing in church that she was conceived by the Holy Ghost, a kid thinks, how can a ghost get Mary pregnant? I mean, that in the mind of a child was so disconnecting.
I also think that for people today, the idea of the Holy Spirit Himself is disconnecting. That is, there are certain parts of God we understand. For instance, the father part we get. A father is a leader, is a provider. God is a father.
God is a provider, makes sense. The son, we don't have too much problem with that. Some of us are sons. We grew up trying to please dad, our fathers on earth. But the idea of the Holy Spirit, so what does He do?
What is He up to? What's all that about? We already covered a whole message on the Trinity some weeks ago, and we want to look specifically at the Holy Spirit. Speaking of the Apostles Creed, though, there was a Sunday school class, and the assignment was to memorize the Apostles Creed. So the way they did it is they assigned each student in the class a phrase, and they would come one Sunday and give their recitation. So on that Sunday, the first child stood up and said, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and he sat down. The next little girl stood up and said, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
She sat down. Then there was a long silence, a long pause. Finally, a little girl in the back of the room said, I'm sorry, sir, but the boy who believes in the Holy Ghost is absent today. And I wonder if that couldn't be said of the church today, that those who believe in the Holy Spirit are absent today. I wonder if it couldn't be that our experience with the Holy Spirit, our knowledge of what He does, what He's about, is sort of like what Paul encountered when he went to Ephesus in the 19th chapter of the book of Acts.
He went to that church and asked them a question. Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And their response is, we haven't even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is fuzzy to a lot of people, elusive to a lot of people. Oh, they grew up reciting the creeds, hearing the sermons, hearing preachers speak about Him, yet He seems elusive. Well, the New Testament refers to the Holy Spirit, just the New Testament, refers to the Holy Spirit 260 times. 260 times by a number of different names. The most common name is the name we know, the Holy Spirit.
So if He is mentioned 260 times, He's certainly someone we cannot neglect. And that's just the New Testament, but He's all over the scripture from the first book to the last book, from Genesis to Revelation, from cover to cover. Genesis chapter 1 verse 2, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Revelation 22 verse 17, and the Spirit and the bride say, come. So we have the Holy Spirit represented throughout the scripture. And in the next few weeks, we're going to look at the Holy Spirit, who He is, what He does in the world, what He does in the church for us, how we are to respond to Him. The problem is, where do you begin when you have 260 choices, 260 different scriptures in the New Testament? Where do you begin talking about the Holy Spirit?
I've chosen to begin with the words of Jesus Himself. It's as if we have the second person of the Trinity introducing to us the third person of the Trinity. We are in John chapter 16. What I want you to know is John chapter 13, 14, 15, and 16, all four chapters happen at one time. It is in a setting called the Last Supper.
It is the upper room discourse it is called. In a few hours, Jesus will be arrested. A few hours after that, He will be crucified.
So He has a few hours left with His friends, with His men, and so He wants to prepare them and instruct them about very important events that are going to be on their radar screen in the coming hours, days, weeks, months, and years. Today, we're going to look at what the Holy Spirit does in the world with unbelievers. And I mentioned our text is chapter 16 of John. What I'd like to do, just to get the whole context, is have you go back and see with me how Jesus introduces this Holy Spirit to His disciples back in chapter 14. John chapter 14, beginning in verse 15, is where He, Jesus, begins the thread of that thought. He said, If you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.
I will come to you. Go down to the 25th verse. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring into your remembrance all things that I said to you.
That's how we account for the New Testament. Now go to chapter 15, toward the very end, verse 26. When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me, and you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Now go down to verse 5 of chapter 16. But now I go away to Him who sent Me, but none of you asked Me, Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
Now I'm going to confine my thoughts to the 16th chapter of John verses 5 through 11. I'm going to show you three aspects of the relationship the Holy Spirit has to the world, three aspects. They are His presence, His pressure, and His people. His presence, His pressure, and His people. And in each case, I'm going to make a simple statement.
The first is His presence is needful. Now in verse 5 where we began, I really should have began in verse 1, but I'll just explain to you what went before that to get to this point. In verse 5, Jesus says, now I go away to Him who sent Me. I'm going back to the Father. I'm going to ascend back to heaven. And none of you asked Me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.
But if I depart, I will send Him to you. Now at this moment in the Upper Room Discourse, in the Last Supper, the disciples are shocked. They're disappointed, to say the least. Jesus has been able to watch their body language as they went from excited at the beginning to very, very depressed at this moment.
And here's why. What Jesus has told them is not what they expected. What they have expected all along is a kingdom to be established on the earth. If this is the Messiah, He's going to establish a kingdom.
2,000 years ago, the Jews in Israel, the Jews in Judea had a pretty simple, straightforward eschatology, that is belief in the end time events of the Messiah. Number one, there's going to be a time of turmoil, national turmoil. And that's going to get us all ready for desiring the Messiah to come. It's going to fuel an expectation.
So check, that has happened. The Romans have come and occupied the land. Everybody's oppressed. Everybody wants the Messiah to come. They're crying for it. They're yearning for it. They're looking for it. Phase two, after that national expectation because of oppression, Elijah is going to come or an Elijah-like forerunner is going to come and say, ladies and gentlemen, here's the Messiah.
Check. John the Baptist came on the scene and said to Jesus or about Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, follow Him. That's why people were so interested in John the Baptist. Are you Elijah? Are you that prophet?
Who exactly are you? Because they knew that. The third phase that they expected is the Messiah will set up His kingdom. So the disciples at this point are thinking one and two have already happened. Number three is going to happen at any moment. The only problem is the Last Supper.
Jesus brings Him in a room and beginning in chapter 13, He tells them the news. I'm leaving. You're what? I'm leaving. And as the discourse goes on, chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, the news goes from bad to worse. I'm leaving.
I'm dying. And I'm going to suffer greatly before I die. That is not what they expected. Now, sorrow is growing in their hearts because of this. But that's not all.
It actually gets worse. In chapter 16, beginning in verse 1, and we haven't even read that part, He says, not only am I dying, not only am I going to suffer, you, because you believe in Me, will suffer and die also. Oh, great.
That's not at all what they expected. So He says, Now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you ask Me, Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has dominated your heart. That's the idea of the word filled.
It's the Greek word playro. It means to fill something up so completely that there's room for nothing else. So emotionally, they are filled to the brim with anxiety.
That's what this means. Sorrow has filled your heart because I said I'm leaving. Sorrow has filled your heart. You know, it's interesting because Jesus says, None of you ask Me where I'm going. You know, you are so focused on what you're losing, you're not even looking at this from My side.
I get to go back home to My Father. But you're so consumed about what you're losing, you're not thinking about what I'm gaining. But look at verse 7. Here's really the crux of this. Nevertheless, I'm telling you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.
What? Now if you're a disciple and you hear that, you're thinking, I don't believe that. It's not to my advantage that you go away.
Here's a better translation. It's actually better for you that I go away. Or the best thing that could happen to you is that I leave you. That's a disconnect for them.
They hear that and they go, why would that be good? You're the guy who calms storms on lakes. You're the guy who heals our relatives. You're the guy who gives lunch to a whole crowd at the Sea of Galilee. You're the one who turns water into wine. And you're the guy who reached into a fish's mouth on tax day and got enough tax for all of us to pay.
You are pretty handy to have around. And now you're saying it's better if you go? You see, they are so focused on what they're about to lose, they're not even thinking about what they're about to gain. What they're about to gain is the Holy Spirit's presence.
And here's why. They don't know how much they're going to need the Holy Spirit in days ahead. So nothing could be better than having Jesus around. So they don't know what's coming. They don't know how much they're going to need the Holy Spirit.
What is coming? Why do they need Him so much? In a word, because of the task. You know what the task is? The Great Commission.
You know the Great Commission, right? Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Well, that's a pretty big task.
In fact, that's an impossible task to do alone. They're going to face persecution in Judea. They're going to face persecution in Greece. They're going to face persecution in Asia Minor. They're going to face persecution in Rome. And then all of them, except for John, will die. A martyr's death because they believe in Jesus Christ. Well, that sounds pretty impossible to me to do alone.
Here's my segue. The task is still the same, and it is still as impossible today for these present disciples as it was for those disciples. And here's why. Because most people do not believe. Most people are unsaved. The large majority of people in the world do not believe in Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation.
This might help. It helped me visually. If you were to line up all the unsaved people in the world, roughly, and put them shoulder to shoulder, lined them up shoulder to shoulder, no social distancing, you could form a line that would go all the way around the earth 30 times. And the line is growing 20 miles longer every single day. It's a pretty big task. But Jesus never said, go at it, boys. Do your best. You're on your own.
Hope you don't get beat up too bad. What he did tell them is go, but don't go until you are filled with power from on high. That's the Gospel of Luke chapter 24. We get to Acts chapter 1, and Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit has come, you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. So go, but don't go on your own. Don't go without the power of the Holy Spirit. D.M.
Dawson wrote this, without the power of the Holy Spirit, all human efforts, methods, and plans are as futile as attempting to propel a boat by puffing at the sails with our own breath. It's a good picture. You're in a sailboat in Newport Beach, California. You want to get to Catalina Island, 25 miles away.
What do you do? That's kind of stupid. You're going to need a wind, much more powerful than. And so to go into all the world and share the Gospel with every creature on your own is, so His presence is needful. It is to your advantage that I go away, because when I go, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, and boys, you're going to need that. Let's look at His pressure now, number two. The second aspect is His pressure.
His pressure is unmistakable. Verse 8, when He, He who? He who? The Holy Spirit. When He, the Holy Spirit, has come, He, the Holy Spirit, will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment, of sin because they do not believe in Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. In short, it's the Holy Spirit that pursues people, that chases people, that comes after people. We have a vision statement in our church that says we pursue the God who passionately pursues a lost world. You know how God passionately pursues a lost world? His Holy Spirit by sending His Holy Spirit.
That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series 2020. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you to live boldly for Jesus in a culture in need of truth and light. The desire to fit in, to be thought of as normal, is a basic human instinct, but would you believe that children as young as three years old already want to follow the crowd and fit in with the group? That's what researchers found in a Duke University study. Yet in the Bible, we learn that some of the people who've made the most impact have done so by defying normal.
Here's Skip Heitzig. I think the Bible calls us to a holy defiance of the status quo. Paul the Apostle said, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So what does it take to go from conformed to transformed? Find out in Pastor Skip's book, Defying Normal. Our thanks to you when you give $35 or more to help expand this Bible teaching ministry. And when you give today, we'll also include the booklet, What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren.
Get your copies of these two bold resources when you call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how the Holy Spirit works through you to reach the world with the gospel. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. So you open up God's toolbox, not brilliant, not impressive, just us, but us filled with the Holy Spirit, us empowered by the Holy Spirit, us used by the Holy Spirit, us instruments of the Holy Spirit. That's a winning combo. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-10 01:33:35 / 2023-05-10 01:42:27 / 9